Allina (Page 2)

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In: Allina, Home, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sam Fettig
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
sam.fettig@mnnurses.org

Lauren Nielsen
(o) 651-414-2862
(c) 651-376-9709
lauren.nielsen@mnnurses.org

First-of-its-kind public hearing is the result of a new law championed by MNA

(St. Paul) – November 18, 2021 – This evening, Minnesota Nurses Association members joined more than 60 participants in a virtual public hearing on Allina Health’s plan to close labor and delivery services at Regina Hospital in Hastings. This cost-cutting move by Allina will negatively impact patient care and the community, as people going into labor will now need to travel an additional 23 miles to St.
… Read more about: Nurses, community object to Allina consolidation plan which will negatively impact patient care, nurse staffing  »

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In: Activism, Allina, Labor Unions

Ensuring patients are safe, healthy and cared for is the ultimate goal in Healthcare. Without support staff, this goal cannot be met.

Think about a typical day on a unit and the teamwork that is needed to provide safe, whole person care—the nurses and CNAs at the bedside, the staff transporting your patients between procedures, the staff answering calls, the staff sitting with a patient overnight, the staff drawing labs, the staff delivering meal trays or fresh linens, the staff assisting a frail patient to a chair—the list is endless.

Support staff work hard to ensure that you have what you need to properly care for patients.
… Read more about: A Shift Without Support  »

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In: Allina, Home, Hospitals, National Nurses United

By Tara Fugate

MNA Strategic Researcher

 

Minnesota hospital charges are rising and have been for decades, but the difference between what hospitals charge patients and the amount hospitals need to deliver care is not often discussed. How much does it actually cost hospitals to provide care? The answer is: it varies. However, one thing is consistent across the state, every hospital included in a recent National Nurses United and Minnesota Nurses Association study charges more than the “cost” of delivering care. The “cost” of delivering care refers not only to direct labor and supply costs but also to administrative and general costs, such as maintenance and housekeeping.
… Read more about: Report Shows Hospital Pricing Rising Faster than Economy  »

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In: Allina, Home

By Mercy Hospital MNA Chairs Sara Wahto and LouAnn Uhr; Unity Hospital MNA Chairs Robin Larson and Gail Olson; and United Hospital MNA Chairs Bunny Engeldorf, Emily Sippola, and Brittany Livaccari

 

We all wring our hands over mandatory low needing. It’s a major problem at hospitals everywhere and can affect the quality of care we can provide our patients. However, nurses in union facilities have the power to address the issue through the grievance process and make a difference.

Here’s how MNA nurses at Allina Mercy, United, and Unity hospitals won a major victory to stop a faulty low needing process at our hospitals:
Incorrect mandatory low need assignments have been a long-standing problem at our hospitals.
… Read more about: MNA nurses at three Allina hospitals win major grievance over mandatory low needing  »

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In: Allina, Press Releases, Unsafe Staffing

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Rick Fuentes
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org

Contact: Barbara Brady
(o) 651-414-2849
(c) 651-202-0845
barbara.brady@mnnurses.org

 

(St. Paul) – October 11, 2017 – One year after the strike ended, nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association have taken formal steps to redress ongoing staffing issues at Allina Health hospitals in the Twin Cities, which were mutually agreed to in the 2016 contract agreement.

“The contract issue remains the role of the charge nurse,” said Emily Sippola, a charge nurse at Allina-owned United Hospital. 
… Read more about: Press Release: Allina Nurses Ask for Mediator to Settle Unresolved Strike Issues  »

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In: Allina, Healthcare, Home, Insurance, Jason Lewis, Politics

By Jean Forman, RN

MNA Member

 

I’m a nurse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I’m also MNA tri-chair for Abbott and for Phillips Eye Institute. I recently attended a rally at an elected representative’s home to support expanding Medicaid. My journey from a political bystander to an activist has been accelerated by the Allina Metro strike of 2016. I learned so much about how legislation can affect me at my workplace and more significantly how the right legislation can impact the public good. I have been supported at MNA by so many people to get active. So I have tried a few things over the last few years, but I would say the strike and the election last year gave me the impetus to really get out there.
… Read more about: Political Activism and Its Many Forms  »

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In: Allina, Home, Insurance, Nurses

By Mathew Keller RN JD

MNA Regulatory and Policy Specialist

“In Minnesota, like the rest of the country, our health care system is in crisis. Healthcare premiums have increased at double-digit levels year-after-year. Employers are being squeezed by these costs, and healthcare has become prohibitively expensive for many self-employed, retired, and uninsured citizens. In this climate, nonprofit healthcare organizations owe a heightened duty to show proper stewardship.”

This was testimony offered to the U.S. Senate Finance committee not this week, not this year, not even this decade—but on April 5, 2005, by then-Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch. It was spurred in part by a comprehensive audit performed by the Attorney General’s office on Allina Health and its subsidiary insurance company, Medica.
… Read more about: With Allina-Aetna Insurance Partnership, It’s Buyer Beware  »

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In: Allina, Home, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Nurses

By Mathew Keller

MNA Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist

Allina’s final estimate of how much money it wasted on labor strife is in, with the health system pegging its total strike costs at 149 million dollars. As Allina employees know, however, this number is an underestimate. While the estimate includes the cost of shipping replacement nurses into Minnesota and paying them hourly rates that would make a cardiologist blush, and subtracts the costs Allina would have paid its trusted nurses were they not on strike– it does not account for the fact that Allina has been and will continue to pay eye-popping sums for replacement nurses well into 2017 due to the extreme level of nurse-turnover post-strike.
… Read more about: What can $149 million get you?  »

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In: Allina, Home

By Mat Keller, RN, JD, MNA Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist

What does the Allina strike mean for non-Allina nurses? I’m sure if you’re a nurse in Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin, you’ve asked yourself a similar question. And it’s not unreasonable. What, exactly, does the Allina strike mean for the profession?

Nothing less than our future.

Allina Health is a corporate entity that has managed to build up $1.3 billion in stock market reserves, $160 million in Caribbean bank accounts, and $300 million in cash, according to its most recent federal Form 990 financial disclosures.
… Read more about: Why the Allina strike continues to matter  »

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In: Allina, Home

By Mathew Keller, RN JD
Regulatory and Policy Nursing Specialist 

In a famous 1863 lawsuit involving landlord rights, Graves v. Berdan, a New York landlord sued a tenant for failing to pay his rent— for leased space in a building that had burned down. Surprisingly enough, the legal precedent at that time required tenants to continue paying rent even after the space being leased ceased to exist.

Such is the power of landlords. They grant their tenants certain rights and uses of property through the provisions of a lease. However, leases also create obligations for tenants – for example, an obligation to pay rent, an obligation to mow the lawn, an obligation to not destroy the premises; or, in the case of the tenant of Unity Hospital, Allina Health, an obligation to “operate a hospital for the benefit of, and open to, all residents of the community upon equal terms” and to “use the leased premises for a public hospital,” according to the terms of its lease with the North Suburban Hospital District Board.
… Read more about: A Hospital for $1?  »